


The Garnet Links

by Corinnathepoet



Category: Abbey Girls - Elsie J. Oxenham
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:21:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 18,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27972263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corinnathepoet/pseuds/Corinnathepoet
Summary: Joan and Len Fraser have moved into their new home. Action takes place after Two Queens at the Abbey.
Kudos: 9





	1. At Home in the Herb Garden

**Author's Note:**

> If you are new to the Abbey Girls series of Elsie J. Oxenham, this story will introduce you to many of the major characters. I earnestly urge you to read "Girls of the Hamlet Club", if you can locate it, and "The Abbey Girls", where the story started. I hope this story does not spoil any enjoyment you may have in the reading of the many stories that predate it. If you hate spoilers, then save this sequel to last. It comes immediately after the book "Two Queens at the Abbey".  
> This story has been written after over 50 years of loving the Abbey Girls series. My mother’s very early copy of "The Queen of the Abbey Girls" was my introduction to the series, with the lovely colour plate of Ken’s first sight of Jen. Hunting in opportunity shops revealed many of the Collins editions, and also some much earlier editions. I have a copy of the Girls Gone By edition of "Maidlin Bears the Torch", purchased by a friend at Cleeve Abbey bookshop, and had the wonderful experience of visiting the Abbey myself in 2011. In 2018 while visiting London, I took a train to Princes Risborough, but didn’t really know how to get up into the Chilterns, and so just walked around the town for a while, then took a bus to Aylesbury and back again.  
> I have managed to obtain copies of the whole series one way or another, and was always fascinated by Jandy Mac, being an Australian myself. It was only recently while rereading "Secrets of Vairy" that I realised how completely the story of Jandy Mac had been hinted at throughout the series. I felt that there needed to be a consciousness on the part of the characters, rather than just in the minds of the many detective-like readers who may have already solved the puzzle. I am indebted to the Elsie J. Oxenham Society for sending me the handwritten family trees with which Elsie J. Oxenham experimented, but my own version of the family tree was created prior to that time. I think it does not substantially differ.  
> My sincere thanks to Elsie J. Oxenham for many years of inspiring and comforting reading, which always bring pleasure and solace in quiet moments. 
> 
> "I always understood it was the Macdonalds who wanted to have no more to do with us," the earl remarked. "That was why I made no attempt to get in touch with the old lady at the farm, when we were at Vairy in the spring. The family have always made it plain that they preferred to ignore the English connection. I don't blame them; but perhaps through this little girl we may become more friendly. I shall be glad if it is so." From Secrets of Vairy

Joan Fraser, with her husband Lennox, known as Len, and their baby John, had finally settled in the Herb Garden, their new home nestled in a quiet corner of the Grace Dieu Abbey grounds. Joan Raymond, who had inherited the Abbey on the death of her cousin Joy’s grandfather, Sir Antony Abinger, had agreed to the younger Joan’s request to sell part of the grounds to them, so they could build their house. Each Joan felt closer to the Abbey than to any other place on Earth.  
Joan’s mother Janice Fraser had helped to furnish the house while Joan and her very young baby had travelled to Sydney, where her husband was recovering after a serious accident in the Antarctic. Len Fraser’s injuries had been severe, and it would be many months perhaps before he could walk unaided. Their house was very convenient for him, and an experienced male nurse had been engaged to help for several months. Janice was staying with them for the first few weeks, until her husband Alec arrived to take up retirement on the south coast.  
“I’m so glad Mother was able to be here over the last few months,” said Joan to Jen Marchwood, who lived next door in Marchwood Manor, as they sat in the front room of Joan’s new home.  
“Yes,” agreed Jen, “Janice being here for John’s birth, and when we heard about Len, was so fortunate. Jandy couldn’t miss the arrival of her first grandchild! Even though it meant coming all the way from Ceylon,” she added, cuddling the cause of that great voyage. Janice, Joan’s mother, had brought her two youngest children with her to meet their nephew, and had been present when the terrible news of her son-in-law’s accident had broken. Presently Janice was out paying a visit to Maidlin Robertson and her twin girls and little boys.  
“I don’t know how I would have managed without her, and I still feel like that,” admitted Joan. ‘I don’t know much about how to care for little John,” she said.  
“Thank goodness you built the house with plenty of bedrooms,” said Jen. Janice was occupying one of these, while her little daughters, Cecily Rose and Janet Joy, were being entertained at Kentisbury Castle. Rosamund, the Countess of Kentisbury, had a suite of nursemaids for her own large family. When Joan was ready, Janice would relocate to Rayley, the home of her first Abbey friend, Joan Raymond, and claim her daughters from Rosamund’s nursery. Janice’s two boys, Alastair and Alan, were in their final years of school in Yorkshire. With Alec due to arrive soon on his ship, the whole family might be reunited for the first time in many years. They were hoping to build or buy a house to retire to.  
“I’ve brought you a housewarming present from Simon Patrick, Littlejan,” said Jen. “You know how much I love Farnham pottery – I am always glad when someone gives me an excuse to get some more!”  
With a cry of delight, Joan unpacked the box that Jen had brought. In it were three jugs, in different sizes, each baked with a warm golden glaze, and shaped like a squat owl. “Oh, they are beautiful, Jen, thank you so much!”  
“Father Owl, Mother Owl, and Baby Owl,” laughed Jen. “I know you have had housewarming gifts from all the rest of the family, so Simon couldn’t miss out. He is particularly fond of owls.”  
All of the friends from the Manor, the Hall, the Castle and the Pallant had given housewarming presents to Joan and Len, in a much-loved tradition established when Rosamund had first moved into the Rose Cottage so long ago. Blankets, towels, crockery and cutlery, napery and vases, had all been gifted by their loving friends. “After all,” as Joan was wont to say, “none of you knew about our wedding, so we got no wedding presents at all!”  
Their house had been built in the Arts and Crafts style, with small paned windows, wide eaves, and sloping roofs. There was an upper storey, whose front window had a small balcony. The warm brick colour of the house with its archway over the recessed front door echoed the nearby Abbey gatehouse. At the south-facing rear of the house was a wide bricked courtyard, covered with a trellis, that would grow vines to shade in summer. Already the courtyard was surrounded by shrubs and flowers, for planting had begun as soon as building.  
Benedicta Bennett, the Abbey gardener, had managed to salvage many of the original old rambling plants which had alerted her to the plot’s first use as the monks’ herb garden for their dispensary. She had also consulted a friend, Daphne Gilmour, who managed a large herb garden in Scotland and sold to several dispensaries, about how best to cultivate and manage the herbs, and which would grow best. There was a chance that Joan might be able to grow enough of certain herbs in the rich soil to become a supplier. But for now, there was pleasure in simply living in the house, and getting to know their favourite places for each time of day. Since Len was still unable to move independently, much of Joan’s time was spent entertaining him, as well as adoring little John.  
“Tell me stories, Littlejan,” Len begged one quiet afternoon, using the pet name that Joan’s father had given her, since she so resembled her mother, Janice. “Tell me more about your connection to this place and these people. There seem to be so many ways that you are part of this place.”  
Joan patted the sleeping John, and wondered where best to start. Her mother had been the first to visit here. “It makes sense to start with Mother’s story,” she said slowly. “She can tell you more than I, but some of it is hard for her to talk about. I don’t know that I went that far back in my stories to you before. I was so busy telling you about my friends and the Hamlet Club that I didn’t tell you much about the past.”  
“When I went to live in Ceylon with Mother,’ began Joan, “she told me the whole story. Granny Janet and her two sisters went to live in Australia, and she met my grandfather there.”  
“How did the three sisters come to be in Australia?” said Len. “Did their whole family emigrate?”  
“No,” replied Joan, patting little John as he stirred in his basket. “Their parents stayed in Scotland, and their brothers, and two more sisters! Perhaps the three girls went out to take up work or to look for husbands? Or maybe the family was too large for them all to manage at home. Many Scots left for Canada and Australia in the 1800s.”  
“I think some of my family left too. I know there are some on Prince Edward Island in Canada,” said Len. “Did your mother know much about her father?”  
“No,” Joan said sadly, “he died just before Mother was born. I think he contracted typhoid. His name was John Macdonald, and he came from the same district in Scotland as my grandmother, near Vairy Castle.”  
Joan smiled at her husband; so easily might she have been a young widow, raising a first-born child on her own. For a while it had been feared that, like her grandfather, Len might never see his own child.  
“Vairy,” said Len. “The Earl’s castle, where we had our honeymoon?”  
“Yes, that’s the one,” said Joan. “Fancy, we were there, but didn’t explore the family connection.”  
“Well it was our honeymoon!” said Len, “and I was leaving after two weeks, for two years!”  
“True,” laughed Joan. “But now comes the part that links us to the Abbey.”  
“Joy, Lady Quellyn, had one uncle, Tony Abinger,” said Joan, resuming the tale. “He met my Granny Janet in Australia, about a year after grandfather had died. He asked her to marry him. Sadly, poor Granny died a week before the wedding, leaving Mother an orphan, when she was only two. Tony Abinger, her “Uncle Tony”, stayed a loving presence in her life while she was growing up. After Granny died, Mother’s two aunts in Australia, the Misses Fraser, raised Mother in Sydney. Aunty Mary Fraser came back to England when Mother married, and went to live in Scotland.”  
“What happened to Tony Abinger?” asked Len, after a few moments where both had fallen silent, and their hands had sought each other. His own luck in evading death, and being with his wife and child, were constant sources of thankfulness, despite the pain he still suffered. This particular story was new to him, and he reflected on the happy nature of his mother-in-law, given the sadness of her earliest days.  
“Tony Abinger died of illness at sea,” said Joan. “I think it was some time prior to his father’s passing, so he didn’t inherit the property or the title. They had a serious argument, which was why he left England. Uncle Tony’s will named Mother as the recipient of his estate. But for a tragic accident, the whole of the Abbey and Abinger Hall might have belonged to Mother.”  
“You mean, all this beautiful place?” said Len in surprise.  
“Yes,” said Littlejan. “Mother had weeks of misery when she first met Joy and Joan Shirley, now Lady Quellyn and Mrs Raymond, of course. The lawyers had brought news about a sailor who claimed that Tony Abinger had died much later than first believed, and that this sailor had looked after him. He had Uncle Tony’s ring! If the later date was true, and he had died after his father, Uncle Tony would have inherited the baronetcy, and also the property, instead of Joy. And he had left everything he owned to Mother.”  
“I suppose then,” Len said perceptively, “that these Abbey people feel a sense of rightness in Janice’s daughter living near Tony Abinger’s old home. After all, it might all have been your home in truth.”  
“Oh, I don’t know,” said Joan humbly. “Mother never wanted to take the property from Joy and Joan. She told me she would have given it back when she turned twenty-one. And I think Mother’s Uncle Tony never knew that his sister Joyce had a little girl. He wouldn’t have meant the property to go away from the family unless there was no-one left but Mother.”  
“Joyce: was that Lady Quellyn’s mother?” said Len.  
“Yes,” said Joan. “But Joan’s mother brought them both up. Mrs Shirley and Joyce Abinger had married twins – the Shirley brothers; it’s from them they get their beautiful bronze hair!”


	2. Janice's Scottish Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joan and Janice tell Len stories about Janice's Scottish family, and her meeting with the Abbey girls.

Little John stirred again; it was time for his afternoon feed and the next hour was taken up with his needs. Janice, returned from her outing, busied herself in the new modern kitchen of the Herb Garden preparing a meal for them all. Janice had taken the opportunity to look around the area where the Pallant was built, Maidlin and Jock Robertson’s home, for coastal Sussex was where she and Alec hoped to retire.  
“Did you find any houses that you liked, Mother?” said Joan, after they had finished their meal, and both Len and baby John were resting. Len was still recovering from his terrible accident and slept rather more than he was used to.   
“Oh yes,” replied Janice, “although not all were within our means! Places here are much more expensive than the South Sea Islands or Ceylon. With the younger ones still at school, we shall have to watch our pennies. But I am sure something lovely will come up. We rather like Seaford, on the coast, near the Seven Sisters. Your father would love to be able to see the sea, and the cliff and river walks are beautiful there. There are some interesting villages just near the coast too. Perhaps we could buy some land and build, as you have done here.”  
“I’m glad you are here with us at the moment, though,” said Joan. The two were very similar, with curly dark hair. Now that Joan was over twenty, the resemblance was even stronger; they were likely to be mistaken for sisters rather than mother and daughter.   
The next day, Joan paid a longed-for visit to Kentisbury Castle, while Len stayed at home with Janice for company. Rosamund, the Countess, was keen to introduce young John to her large family, and Joan wanted to get to know her little sisters better.   
“Littlejan started to tell me about your connection to the family here at the Abbey yesterday,” said Len when he and Janice had finished lunch. “She mentioned your Uncle Tony in Australia.”  
“Oh yes, he was a dear friend. He was to have become my stepfather,” said Janice. “After his death I really felt the loss of his company; we had such good times together; he was such a constant in my life after Mother died. He was part of the reason why I felt I had come to England when I was seventeen. One of my aunts and I travelled together. I was hoping so much to see the Abbey. Uncle Tony had told many stories about it. And of course, my aunt planned to take me to Scotland to meet my grandparents for the first time, and all the rest of my Scottish family. It had been nearly twenty years since Aunty Mary had seen her parents! But we were lucky enough to meet Joy and Joan, and Joan’s mother Mrs Shirley, and I had a month staying at the Hall before making the trip to Scotland.”  
“Did you know much about your Scottish families?” asked Len curiously.   
“My grandfather Fraser, Mother’s father, was factor to the old Earl of Kentisbury, supervising his property at Vairy Castle, on a picturesque loch.”  
“Vairy again,” said Len. “That name keeps cropping up in the stories! Littlejan told me your father came from near there, and your mother.’  
“Yes,” said Janice, “that’s right. I am not sure if Mother and my father knew each other before they left Scotland. But it’s not surprising that Scottish people got to know each other in Australia. I think they tended to band together and keep up traditions.”  
“Anyway, my grandfather and Granny quietly retired to a nearby cottage when he ceased to be factor, and that was when I visited them. The castle was often called Weary Castle by the locals, since it was so rarely occupied, Aunty said. There were two other aunts, the Misses Fraser, who both ran the village and looked after anyone who was ill. They were nurses during the war. There were other aunts and uncles, and several types of cousins as well. And of course, Alec was one of them,” finished Janice mischievously. For Janice had married a distant cousin, Alec Fraser, and with him had settled in the South Sea Islands from where he sailed as a merchant seaman.  
“What about the Macdonald side of the family – your father’s family?” prompted Len.  
“My father, John Macdonald, had two brothers and one sister,” said Janice, with a smile as she thought of the new little namesake for the father she had never known.   
“I met Aunt Effie once – Euphemia, my father’s sister,” she laughed, in response to Len’s bemused expression. “I know, families can be complicated! I never met Sandy, his younger brother, or his wife. Sadly, his wife died not long after. I heard that Uncle Sandy died a few years ago,” said Janice. “Aunt Effie also died in the same year. I believe she was his housekeeper for many years. My father’s older brother, Jeffrey MacDonald, had long since emigrated to Canada and was mining, or so I heard. My Fraser aunts were quite good sources of news and wrote often to Aunt Mary, but mostly about their parents and family.”  
“So there is no-one left in Scotland for you now?” said Len sympathetically.  
“My grandparents died while I was living overseas,” said Janice. Aunty Mary is no longer living. I hope to visit her remaining sisters in a few weeks, but it is a long way to take Cecily and Janet.”  
“What about Canada?” said Len. “Is there still family there?”  
“One of Mother’s brothers was also in Canada. Actually, when I first came to England, Aunty wanted me to go with her to meet him. But I had never had any contact with him or his family, so I said that I didn’t really want to make another sea voyage. Aunty and another of her Scottish sisters travelled together. And there is that older brother of my father, but I know almost nothing about him.”  
“What did you do when your aunt left for Canada?” asked Len. These stories of the past were helping to pass the uncomfortable hours for him, and helping him to better know his youthful mother-in-law. They were also distractions from the other anxiety that was spreading slowly through the quiet corners of England.  
“I asked the headmistress at Joy and Joan Shirley’s school in Wycombe if I could go to school for a term. And the school had moved to Abinger Hall for a few months, because the drains had had to be taken up. I went back to school at Joy’s house!” laughed Janice. “There were home economy and language options for older students, and I got the chance to play some cricket and tennis. I also knew young Jen Robins, a young friend of Joy and Joan. Jen is Lady Marchwood now. She was the first English schoolgirl I met.” Janice recalled the day she had seen Joy crown her cousin Joan, and met the little schoolgirl Jen, with her long yellow plaits.  
“I didn’t realise you had known all of them for such a long time,” said Len. “Did you also meet the Countess and Mrs Robertson then?”  
“Oh no,” said Janice. “I had one more visit to England, and then Alec and I married and went to live in Samoa, all before they came on the scene. The first time I met them was when I brought Joan home to go to school here, when she was thirteen. Rosamund was Countess by then!”  
“So much had happened to the others too. Joy and Joan had both married, although Joy lost her first husband, the explorer Sir Andrew Marchwood, within a year. Her twins, Elizabeth and Margaret, were born on the night that the news of Andrew’s death came through from Africa.”  
“That’s rotten luck,” said Len soberly. With his own young son, he now understood much more about the feelings of those with little children. “I can’t imagine what it must have been like for Lady Quellyn to have to raise her children alone. Did she live with Mrs Raymond?”   
“No,” said Janice. “Joan’s husband Jack Raymond was stationed at Malta with his regiment for two years. He was Captain Raymond then. But they returned to England where they wanted to bring up their young family, only a few weeks after Joy’s twins were born. Their house is on the way to Sussex. Joy continued living here at the Hall, with her mother. By then Rosamund and Maidlin were here too, but still at school. Joy had asked Mary-Dorothy Devine to be her permanent secretary when she left to go to Africa on her honeymoon. Mary-Dorothy has lived here ever since.”  
“I see,” said Len, “it was all planned out very well. I imagine Lady Quellyn was pleased not to have to leave her own home after her husband died. Wouldn’t she have had to live at Marchwood Manor if either child had been a boy?”  
“I suppose so,” said Jandy Mac. “I hadn’t thought of that. Anyway, Joy had plenty of help. Jen was next door at the Manor with old Lady Marchwood – she and Ken got married a few weeks after the twins were born, and Ken went out to Africa to finalise everything for Joy. Both old Lady Marchwood and Mrs Shirley died within a year of Andrew’s death. Eight years later, Joy married again, this time to Sir Ivor Quellyn.”  
There was a phone call at that moment, and Janice went to answer it. Len, who had had little to do with families since joining the Antarctic exploration fleet a year before, and while studying before that, was intrigued by this huge set of friends and connections into which he had married.   
Len sat thinking of the young explorer, Sir Andrew Marchwood, whose story had been eerily similar to his own, with an expedition and disaster. How lucky that, for he and Littlejan, the ending was a happier one.  
To Len, though, it seemed as though Janice and Joan were a little on the outer in some ways, despite all the kind friendships. Like their house, the Herb Garden, they were on the fringes, and Janice had no permanent home in England. Family in Scotland was one thing, but everyone there seemed to have died, or to be rather old. He felt a rush of tenderness towards Joan and Janice, who were both so unconscious of any courage during their years away from any extended family, without Janice’s parents or grandparents, or any grandparents for Joan. All Alec Fraser’s family seemed to be in Scotland as well and Len knew nothing about them. Like Len himself, years at sea had made Alec very independent. And then, the last war had taken so many people.   
“That was Littlejan calling from Kentisbury,” said Janice when she returned. “Rosamund has insisted they stay the night rather than have that long car drive back here tonight with the baby.”  
Len reluctantly agreed that this was a good idea; he missed his young wife desperately now and the baby too, even though there wasn’t much opportunity for play yet. And Len himself was scarcely mobile; but he was determined to fix that!


	3. Littlejan and Rosamund

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rosamund encourages Joan to work hard to help her husband recover from his accident, and introduces her to a new friend.

At the castle, Joan was enjoying the company of Rosamund, Countess of Kentisbury. Her friend, Tansy Lillico, the housekeeper’s niece and heir apparent to that big role at the Castle, was also there while her training course was in recess, so there was a rapturous reunion. Tansy was awestruck by little John, and held him gingerly, while Joan gloated over the delight that Rosamund and Tansy showed. The Earl looked in on the group, and paid his respects to little John as well.  
“He’s a very fine little fellow, Joan,” said the Earl kindly. “I hope young Len is recovering well.”  
“Thank you, Lord Kentisbury,” said Joan, “we are hopeful that he will get full use of his legs back presently, but at the moment it is not too easy for him to move around. I am just so glad to have him at home finally.”  
After dinner, when John was asleep, and Rosamund and Joan had a moment to themselves, Rosamund spoke low and earnestly.  
“Did you know, Littlejan, that when I met Geoffrey he was in a chair, and was a complete invalid?” she said.  
“No!” exclaimed Joan. “He seemed very well from the time I first met him here, when Geoffrey-Hugh was a baby. How did he get well?”  
“I did it!” proclaimed Rosamund proudly. “I told him I wouldn’t marry him unless he could walk down the aisle with me, and I found specialists in London who could help him with special treatment. He got better quickly then! He will never be as strong as Ivor Quellyn or Jock Robertson, but, well, we now have seven children, when for a while it was feared we could never have any. So never give up on your Len – do everything you can to make him strong. I am sure you can work together to get him well again…in every way.”  
“Thank you for telling me, Rosamund,” said Joan shyly. She was only just getting used to using the Countess’s name, rather than calling her ‘My Lady’, as she had learned from Tansy Lillico. “We have been fearful that more children may be out of the question, but it is too early for the doctors to say. At least we have our little John; I will always give thanks for that.”  
“It was through you and Tansy that my first little boy’s life was saved,” said Rosamund. “Oh yes,” she urged, as Joan shook her head, “don’t think Geoffrey and I ever underestimate how important your actions were in helping us to find him before…well, we can never thank you or Jandy Mac enough.”  
Dignified Rosamund brushed tears from her eyes and embraced Joan as they both thought of the anguish that might have been. Then, they both laughed as the sound of two hungry babies reached them from the nursery, one-year old Peter Geoffrey Kane and one-month old John Fraser.  
“Come on, I hear our little boys calling,” said Rosamund. “Who is louder, your John or my Peter?”  
“Tomorrow,” said Rosamund, as they went upstairs together, “I want you to meet someone new who lives nearby. Her name is Mrs Rosalin Black, and we are so pleased to have her here. I will tell you why in the morning. Good night, dear Littlejan.”  
Joan, holding her own baby John, spent a happy hour in the nursery next morning with her little sisters, Cecily and Jantyjoy, who were five and three. They had made great friends with the two sets of Kentisbury twins, Rosabel and Rosalin, and Rosilda and Rosanna. Six little girls, four very fair, and two sandy haired, clustered around a busy breakfast table, chattering and laughing happily. Joan would be able to take a happy report back to Janice at the Herb Garden.  
Later in the morning, after breakfast and more quiet talks, Rosamund invited her out onto the sun terrace to meet Rosalin Black. All six little girls, young Geoffrey, and babies John and Peter were brought out by the team of nursemaids to play in the sandpit or lie on rugs and kick in the sun.  
“Littlejan, meet our newest friend, Mrs Rosalin Black. Rosalin is Geoffrey’s young cousin from Scotland, and we have only recently got to know each other,” explained the Countess. “Rosalin, this is our very great friend Mrs Joan Fraser, but everyone calls her Littlejan or Marigold – she will have to tell you why,” laughed Rosamund.  
“Later perhaps. Is little Rosalin named after you?” smiled Joan, as she shook hands with the golden haired Rosalin Black, who seemed quite at home in the surrounds of the Castle.  
“No,” she said in a soft Scottish accent, “I hadn’t met Uncle Geoffrey or Aunt Rosamund then, and there are much older ancestors named Rosalin, including my grandmother. My first name is Christina, sometimes Kirsty, my great aunt’s name.”  
“Kirsty, that’s unusual,” said Joan, “but pretty,” she finished hastily.  
“You shouldn’t call me Aunt Rosamund! Just Rosamund is enough,” laughed the Countess. “Rosalin and her husband, our young doctor Roger Black have recently moved to Kentisbury. Roger has taken over the Kentisbury village practice from his father,” explained Rosamund. “I will leave you to get acquainted; Geoffrey needs me for a few moments. Littlejan, the car will be ready in twenty minutes to take you and John home.”  
The two younger girls sat and watched the little children playing in the children’s garden which had been created for them in this sun-filled terrace.  
“Have you been married long?” asked Joan. “I was married last year; then my husband away to Antarctica on expedition.”  
“We got married last year too, after Roger finished his medical degree. Is your husband home now?” asked Rosalin innocently.  
“Oh yes,” said Joan in some confusion. “There was an accident on the ice; he was injured and had to come home.”  
“Is your husband the man who saved Dr. Hamilton?” said Rosalin, jumping to her feet in excitement.  
As Joan nodded, Rosalin continued, “My husband, Roger, knows him! He helped to treat him in hospital in London when he was first brought back to England. He was so proud to know the man who had saved Dr. Hamilton. Please tell him that Roger Black lives down here now.”  
“You must both come to visit us at our new home,” said Joan, a little overwhelmed by this news, and not yet experienced at issuing invitations to her home. She was conscious that the maid had come to advise that the car was ready, and waiting to take her back to the Abbey. The nurse handed John to her, with his bag of essentials, and Rosalin walked with her out to the courtyard where the car was waiting. Both Lord and Lady Kentisbury were on the steps to bid them farewell, and had been joined by two fair haired boys, Rosamund’s brother Roddy, now eight years old, and Viscount Verriton, aged six.


	4. The Story of Chestnut

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rosamund tells Rosalin the story of Chestnut, Joan's pony, and why Joan and Janice mean so much to the Kane family.

A groom was walking a chestnut pony around in the courtyard and Joan gave a squeal of delight.   
“Chestnut! And Mr. Ferguson! How wonderful Chestnut looks! Thank you for bringing him to see me.” She ran over and patted the pony’s gleaming coat.   
“Is that your pony?” asked Rosalin, amused by Joan’s change from proper young matron into gleeful girl.   
“Yes,” said Joan, “although I don’t see him very often now. Kentisbury is his home. I can’t wait to ride again!”  
“Leave it a while,” laughed Rosamund, “you don’t want to find yourself ringing for the car from a roadside telephone box.”  
Both laughed in reminiscence, for that had been exactly the situation in which Joan, Rosamund and Janice had first met, six years previously.   
“Goodbye everyone,” said Joan, “thank you so much for having me and come to visit us soon!”  
“Come with me, Rosalin, and I will tell you the story of Littlejan,” said Rosamund, as the big car drove off, with Joan waving from the window.   
Rosamund told how Janice Fraser had returned to England six years’ previously, after an absence of fourteen years. She had brought her daughter, Joan, from Sydney, Australia, in order that Joan finish her education at Miss Macey’s school at Wycombe.   
“I had ridden with Ferguson to visit my friend Joan Raymond, but it was only a couple of months after Geoffrey-Hugh was born, and I found I was too tired to ride back. Jandy Mac, Littlejan’s mother, had wanted to surprise Joan, but arrived the day Joan’s new baby boy was born. So Jandy Mac was stuck with nowhere to go, and I was phoning to be rescued by my car. I heard them trying to call other mutual friends, and realized I knew who they were. All our problems were solved by bringing them here.”  
“Why was your friend called Jandy Mac?” said Rosalin.   
“It was a school name, a play on her maiden name, Janice Macintosh, or Mackenzie, or Macdonald: I can’t remember which! By the way, Littlejan and her husband went to Vairy Castle for their honeymoon, just like you and Roger,” said Rosamund casually, unconscious of the possible import of what she had said earlier. Rosalin made no comment, but looked thoughtful. Fraser and Macdonald? Rosalin had grown up among those names.   
“Anyway, it was so confusing to have young Joan and older Joan, whose namesake young Joan was. We solved the problem by everyone adopting her father’s name for her: Littlejan, much to young Joan’s embarrassment,” recalled Rosamund with a laugh. “I called her Joan-Two, and when she became May Queen at Miss Macey’s school, she took the marigold as her flower, and was known as Marigold from then on. That made things much easier! Somehow though, she is Littlejan again to most of us now. Marigold was rather a school name.”  
“Marigold!” said Rosalin, “how that suits her with her vivid dark hair and cheerful face.” Rosalin was thinking how uncharacteristic was her own golden hair, among her Macdonald relatives. If this Joan was a Macdonald, then she certainly looked like others in the family. But it couldn’t be; it was too much of a coincidence. Rosalin dismissed the thoughts and attended to her Aunt Rosamund again.  
“You may not have heard this part of our story, Rosalin. We kept it out of the papers; there was a court case, but names were suppressed and there was much less publicity than there might have been.” Unconsciously Rosamund had stiffened and her tone was sombre. Rosalin was struck by the emotion in her voice as she told the story.   
“Littlejan and her mother were staying at Kentisbury Castle with us. An abduction was carried out of my first baby, Viscount Verriton, my young brother Roddy, and Mike, one of Lady Marchwood’s sons. Littlejan and Tansy Lillico helped to save the children from a group of evil men, and Janice rode miles on horseback to alert the police. Geoffrey and I are eternally indebted to them all. We might so easily have lost our little boy.”  
“Is that why Joan’s pony is here?” asked Rosalin, understanding the connection that was deeper than friendship between Joan and the Countess.   
“The Earl gave Chestnut to Littlejan, and Tansy her horse Black Boy, in thanks for their bravery. They were both frightened of going out into the grounds for quite a while, and Geoffrey felt they might overcome that fear by seeing the place from the back of a sturdy pony! Ferguson taught them both to ride. We invited Littlejan always to spend her weekends and holidays at the Castle while she was away at school,” explained Rosamund.   
“Of course, Littlejan could only come when her busy activities at school, and as May Queen, permitted. So, you see why Littlejan and her mother are very precious to us. One day I am sure you will meet Littlejan’s mother – that’s if you can tell them apart! Now that Littlejan is grown up they are even more alike than ever,” and Rosamund ended her story with a smile, as the youngest baby of her family was brought to her.


	5. Benedicta's Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joan and Janice visit the Hall, meeting Benedicta along the way.

Early the next morning, a cheerful whistle greeted Joan and Janice as they walked out of the house with John in his pram for an early stroll. Benedicta Bennett from the Abbey, who had done fine work restoring the original herb garden of the Cistercian monks of Grace Dieu Abbey, had come over to check the progress of some new plantings and to bring some cuttings from the Abbey garden. Rosemary, thyme, hyssop, yarrow and other fragrant herbs now scented the air, and tall foxgloves lined the flagstone pathways. The early summer had brought many of the plants to flower, and both the Herb Garden and the garden at the gatehouse of the Abbey, which had been created by Damaris Ellerton, during her recovery from a stage accident, were in full bloom.  
“Walk with us to the gatehouse, Benedicta,” said Joan gaily. Everyone had slept well, and Len was now being helped to prepare for the day by his nurse. The girls followed the gravel path back the way that Benedicta had come, crossing the low bridge over the monks’ fish stream, and pausing to gaze at the picture made by roses, lilies, gracefully arranged stones and paths, and low plantings of a variety of pretty shrubs and annuals.   
“What are your plans for the summer, Benedicta?” asked Janice. The owner of the Abbey, Joan Raymond, insisted that her gardener take a few weeks off each year during the summer, so that she could enjoy the warmth and opportunities for travel. A man from the village would come in to maintain the plants while Benedicta was away.  
“I thought I might go to Norfolk and do a little sailing,” said Benedicta. “Jimmy and Gail are planning to rent a cottage there for a week or two, and I would love to spend some time with them and the children. There are lots of waterways – the Broads – and interesting villages to see too. I have some old school friends there that I might be able to visit too.” Benedicta’s brother Jimmy had married Abigail Alwyn three years ago, and was doing well with his business.   
“Joy said I could borrow the little car, but I thought I might go by train, just for the fun of it. It will really seem like a holiday then!”  
“I would love to see more of England one day,” said Joan. “Although between Kentisbury in Sussex, and the Abbey here in Buckinghamshire, I have seen a fair bit of the south. And, of course, Len and I were in Scotland last year, at Vairy Castle. That seems a long time ago.” For a moment, the events of the recent winter overwhelmed her, and she was glad to have the handle of the pram to hold to stop her trembling. Benedicta, sensitive to atmosphere, paused in silent sympathy, while Janice passed her arm around her daughter’s waist.  
“You must all go out to Quellyn one year, to visit Robin and Rob Quellyn in their castle,” said Benedicta eventually. “I believe it is at least as large as Kentisbury Castle. But I don’t think I know anyone who has travelled as much as you two have, not even Joy!”  
“I would love you to see Robin and Rob again, Mother,” said Joan. “I was really close to Robin for a while, and I wrote to both of them while I was at school in Wycombe. In fact, Jen says she and I are responsible for bringing them together!”  
Joan, despite her longing for yet more travel, had already traversed the world, as had her mother. Growing up in Samoa, Joan’s first school years had been at boarding school in Australia. A sea voyage had brought her and her mother to England when she was thirteen. Then at sixteen she had voyaged to Ceylon, with her father, to be company for her mother, when Janice was expecting another baby. On that voyage Joan met her husband-to-be, radio operator Lennox Fraser. Although they shared the same surname, there was no known family connection.   
It was as a very young bride that Joan returned to England, to introduce her husband to all her friends, and farewell him on a voyage of exploration to Antarctica, with a brief honeymoon in Scotland. On the Antarctic journey Len had been seriously injured, and repatriated to Sydney. Joan, with her new son John, flew to Australia, accompanied by her nurse. Joan had been fearful that, not only might Len never walk again, but that he may not survive. The sight of his wife and new son helped him rally, and within a few months, Len was well enough to take the long air journey home, to settle into the new house that had been furnished by Joan’s mother during their absence.   
“I hope your holiday with your family is everything you wish for, Benedicta,” said Janice kindly. She knew that Benedicta had lost her parents in recent years, and was bravely facing the world alone, but for her brother and his family. Like Joan, Benedicta had reason to hold a special place in the hearts of the folk at the Abbey. Benedicta had taken over the role of Abbey gardener, a post for which she had been well trained at Woodend school, from Damaris Ellerton. Damaris was a famous dancer, and had married Brian Grandison on her departure from the world of ballet. Damaris’s sister Rachel was the Abbey caretaker and chatelaine, and she and Benedicta were firm friends and work companions.


	6. A Shadow on the Abbey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's summer in 1939, and the folk at the Abbey and the Hall are only too well aware of the impending war.

As the trio approached the Abbey gatehouse, a rush of red-haired twin girls came to meet them. “Hello Benedicta, Marigold, Aunty Janice, how is little John?” asked Elizabeth, the older twin. “And Mr. Len?”  
Joan was able to give a good report of both. All the girls at the big school in Wycombe, which had been attended by two generations of Abbey girls, and more recently boys, were keen to know about ‘their Mr. Len’, for ‘Marigold’ had been a much-loved May Queen.  
Benedicta returned to her work in the gatehouse garden, shouldering a trug to pull up more of the weeds that were the bane of her life. “Goodbye Littlejan, and Mrs Fraser. I may not see you before I leave on my holiday but will tell you all about it when I return. See you later twins,” she called.  
“Aunty Janice, Mother says you and Marigold should come inside for morning tea,” said Margaret importantly. “Uncle Ken and Aunt Jen are visiting too.”  
Joan and Janice were warmly welcomed when they reached the sheltered terrace of Abinger Hall, Joy and Ivor Quellyn’s home. Jen Marchwood plucked John from his pram, and cuddled him as his eyes struggled to focus on all the different faces. Mary-Dorothy Devine was also present; her home had been at the Hall for many years now, and her wise counsel was always sought by the folk of the Manor and the Hall.  
“Is Len up to having visitors?” asked Ken Marchwood, as Joan talked about his progress.  
“Oh yes,” she said, “he is always wanting to know what is happening in the outside world, and loves to talk about his work too.”  
“I will come over then, perhaps tomorrow afternoon?” suggested Ken. “Are you taking the newspapers, Littlejan?”  
“No, not yet, I hadn’t really thought about getting them,” said Joan.  
“I think we can send our paper down to you and Len every day,” commented Ivor Quellyn. “That will give him something interesting to read each day, and help him know what is going on.”  
“Is something going on?” asked Joan, noticing a grave edge to Ivor’s tone of voice. Her happy life in Samoa and Ceylon had included little consciousness of world affairs, and the sheltered valley in Buckinghamshire was out of the reach of newsstands. The radio was more often tuned to music than to news.  
“We hope not,” said Sir Kenneth Marchwood, for once without a smile on his good-natured face. “A new act of parliament, the Military Training Act, has just been approved. It means immediate conscription of young men aged between 20 and 22 for six months military service.”  
“Why has that happened?” asked Joan.  
“You know that Mr. Chamberlain has been travelling to Germany to meet the leader there, Mr. Hitler?” said Jen.  
“He is the man who holds those big rallies with flags and hordes of soldiers, isn’t he?” said Janice, recalling conversations with her husband over the last few years. “Alec said quite a few people he knew in the Merchant fleets were concerned about secret German plans for warships and submarines.”  
Joan noticed that Ivor and Ken looked respectfully at her well-informed mother. So Alec Fraser was concerned about German naval build up? The old hands on the sea would know how important the sea lanes were to the safety of Britain.  
“I think Dad and Len talked about that sometimes when we were on the way to Ceylon a few years ago,” added Joan. “I know Len wasn’t supposed to talk about it to me, but he did mention it once or twice. He said many merchant captains and the expedition captain were anxious about the possibility of attack by submarines if war was ever to come.”  
“Exactly,” said Ivor Quellyn. “Chamberlain hopes to avert war with Germany under any circumstances, but Hitler may have other ideas. My continental friends are quite anxious at present. Have you heard of Arnold Schoenberg, the composer? He left Germany for the States, and knows of many Austrians who have been imprisoned. I met him in New York a few years ago. He, like many others, holds grave fears for his countrymen.”  
“How does this affect us?” said Joan. Could life in this quiet part of England change? It had withstood Henry VIII, Oliver Cromwell, and survived the Great War. Surely nothing could affect it?  
Jen spoke then. “Lord Kentisbury, Geoffrey, has said that the House of Lords is discussing the possibility of conscription – a wider call to military service, if England should go to war with Germany.”  
“Thank goodness all our boys are too young,” said Janice fervently. Joan’s Len, gravely injured, could not possibly be involved in conflict now.  
“It may be more than just young men,” said Joy, her voice breaking a little. “We don’t know yet if it will ever happen, but plans are being drawn up for conscription for men aged between 18 and 41, and unmarried girls aged 20 to 30.”  
Joan gazed at them in horror. “But does that mean …?” She looked at Ken and Ivor, scarcely believing what she was hearing.  
“It means all our men, and many of our women,” said Jen gently. “Ken, Ivor, Jock Robertson, Jack Raymond, Bill from the Castle, of course, is already in the Navy. Cicely’s husband and son, Benedicta’s brother, the Grandison brothers, young Dr. Black…. And our girls too, Benedicta, and Rachel.” Her voice trailed away into a long silence.  
Jen Marchwood and Joy Quellyn had faced fear and loss in their short lives, but nothing like they now feared. Mary-Dorothy’s heart ached for them as she watched them sit straight and still beside their tall husbands. Her imagination was already constructing the possible futures that might come to them.  
“But Aunty Joan’s husband was in the Great War! Must he go again? Jansy’s Diccon? And my father?” said Joan, realization dawning as to how far this blow would reach. Did her mother know this was coming? A look at her mother’s face, blanched as she had never seen it, suggested that she had known.  
“Yes Littlejan, Father too,” said Janice. “Poor Cicely, to think that both Diccon and Dick would have to go,” she added. She looked around with growing fear. “Alastair is sixteen now. If it lasts a long time, I may have to send my boy as well as my husband.”  
“We will be proud to go, if it comes to that,” said Ken staunchly, “but all the same… each of us leaves a lot behind. So many young people were lost in the last war; it should have never been possible for it to happen again.”  
“How can we bear it?” said Joan brokenly.  
“Together, Marigold,” said Jen, “the same as we have coped with everything else. Andrew’s death, my parents dying, Ken’s crash, the accident to Len … terrible as all those things are, we have always had each other to help us bear it. That won’t change, Joan dear.”  
“But is it going to happen?” said Joan, almost rebelliously. “Wasn’t Mr Chamberlain trying to stop it? You all sound as if it were a foregone conclusion.”  
“No-one wants this less than we do,” said Ivor Quellyn. “But Austria was annexed last year, Germany has mobilized troops, and there have been disturbing reports about her intentions towards Poland. And Hitler’s position on Jews and gypsies, for example, is well known. He wrote a book more than ten years ago. No-one took it very seriously, but, by God, they should have done. Half my musical friends in New York are Jewish – they are terrified at what Hitler intends. If he starts to bring his vision to pass, then no sane people would stand for it.” Ivor’s passion was not only confined to the conductor’s podium, and for a moment he looked almost ferocious. But each of them accepted the truth of what he said.  
The disturbing meeting continued for a few more minutes, with Ivor giving Janice some copies of the Times to take home. “I hope your husband will be home soon,” he said quietly to Janice. “I look forward very much to some conversations with him about what the seamen are saying.”  
Janice and Joan walked home through the Abbey in silence. Even the peaceful atmosphere of the Abbey grounds could not lift the weight that each felt. Janice had borne the weight of awareness of impending war for many weeks; for Joan, this was a new burden that brought the near loss of her husband into sharper perspective.  
“Oh Mother, I am glad Len was injured,” she said suddenly, as they turned into the avenue leading to the Herb Garden. “Otherwise he would have had to go, if war comes. He can’t go now!”  
“You are right,” said Janice, “although you may find Len thinks differently. No man who wants to fight would want to stay behind when his friends and neighbours are all going. Len may find a way yet that he can help the war effort. If war comes…”  
“What about us, Mother,” said Joan. “What can the women with children do?”  
“I’m glad you are thinking that way, Littlejan. We can all do something! I remember in the last war, women ran Red Cross societies, made bandages and sheets, knitted socks, sent parcels, wrote to soldiers… so many things. Others joined up as nurses, transport drivers, all kinds of work. There were nurses on the ships at Gallipoli! Even children helped - I was at school – we used to have a garden to grow food in the school grounds. We all did what we could,” recalled Janice. “Many things will change, Littlejan, for us and for all these children. Like Ivor, I can’t believe it is coming again. The Great War was supposed to be the “war to end all wars”.”  
“Maybe it won’t come,” said Joan hopefully, as they entered the house. But her heart was grave, and her thoughts ranged wildly, encompassing all the friends she knew who would have their lives changed forever.


	7. Roger and Rosalin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roger and Rosalin are invited to visit the Hall, and attend a special event.

Rosalin had been quick to tell Roger of the meeting with Joan at Kentisbury Castle that evening.   
“Roger, I met a friend of Aunt Rosamund’s at the Castle today,” said Rosalin. “Her husband is the man who saved the life of Dr. Hamilton!”  
“Len Fraser! Do you mean he lives near here?” exclaimed Roger.  
“I don’t think so,” said Rosalin. “Aunt Rosamund’s car took her and her baby home after they stayed the night, so I gather they live some distance away. His wife is Joan, and she asked if we would like to visit them one day.”  
“Oh, we must,” said Roger, “I’m very interested to know how his recovery is coming along, and he’s a very nice chap. Perhaps the Countess might give you their address?”  
When the Countess told Rosalin that the Frasers lived at the foot of the Chilterns, in Buckinghamshire, Rosalin and Roger decided to make an overnight trip, since it would take them two hours to drive each way, through Guildford. “We could stay in Aylesbury,” said Rosalin, consulting a map, “or perhaps even Oxford?”   
But Rosamund had been busy on the phone, and a letter came to Rosalin and Roger’s address early the following week.   
“It’s from someone called Mary-Dorothy Devine at Abinger Hall,” said Rosalin, “inviting us on behalf of Sir Ivor and Lady Quellyn to stay at their home! She says the Countess mentioned that we were planning to visit the district for a weekend, and that Lady Quellyn earnestly requests the pleasure of our company!”   
“That’s kind,” said Roger. “Would you like to go there?”  
“I suppose Aunt Rosamund might be disappointed if we didn’t accept their invitation,” said Rosalin, “although I do feel as though we might be imposing. This Mary-Dorothy Devine person says there is a special occasion happening which we might enjoy. I wonder if they dress for dinner, as Aunt Rosamund and Uncle Geoffrey do?” mused Rosalin. “We shall have to take your suit and my best frock!”  
“You had better bring the garnet collar!” teased Roger. “I have been wanting an occasion when you could wear it!” Old Aunt Effie had given Rosalin a garnet necklace, to carry on the tradition of its belonging to the oldest girl in each generation. The necklace was made in the shape of a jewelled band or collar, as Roger called it, about an inch in depth, made of silver and set with dark red stones. At intervals single stones hung down, six small ones and one larger piece to make a centre pendant. It was a striking piece, and a Kane family heirloom.  
“Oh, I’m not sure,” said Rosalin, shrinking from the thought of being conspicuous. “I will ask Aunt Rosamund – she will know what is best to do. I never feel it really suits me; gold would be better than silver with my colouring.”  
“I will see if I can find a gold heirloom next time for my lady,” laughed Roger.   
“It won’t be an occasion for the garnets,” advised Rosamund, when Rosalin broached the subject with her next day. “We will have a special dinner here one day for you and Roger, and Patricia and Bill, and invite the Quellyns, Marchwoods and Robertsons, and some other friends, and all of us can wear our heirlooms. Just your white frock would be lovely, and, if you have dancing shoes, why not put them in your luggage?” hinted Rosamund mysteriously.   
Roger and Rosalin drove through light summer showers into Buckinghamshire several days later, rejoicing in this unexpected holiday and looking forward to the novelty of new places. Rosamund had assured them both that they would be welcomed warmly and that the atmosphere was always jolly and relaxed at the Hall and the nearby Manor.   
They were slightly taken aback when, after driving through an avenue of fine old beech trees and stopping before the gracious mansion, two red-headed girls in their early teens and both dressed in white, ran out of the house and down the front steps.  
“You must be Mr and Mrs Black?” asked one of the girls, who were very obviously identical twins. “We have been hoping you would arrive soon. This is Mary-Dorothy,” she said, indicating an older woman who had followed them out and was smiling a welcome from the doorway, “she will arrange for your things to be taken indoors, and Frost will put your car away. Would you mind very much coming with us now?”  
Roger laughed, equal to any mystery. “Of course, you may kidnap us, but it would help if we knew who was abducting us?”  
“Twin, slow down,” said one, whose demeanour was a little more controlled than her sister’s. “How do you do?” she said primly. “I am Elizabeth Marchwood, and this is my twin, Margaret. Welcome to Abinger Hall, and Mother and Dad say you are very welcome.”  
“Now will you come?” said the other twin earnestly. “It’s a surprise, and I am sure you will enjoy it.”  
“Margaret,” said the older woman, “Mr and Mrs Black will like to see their rooms first.”  
“Oh,” said the impatient twin, suppressing her obvious desire to rush her guests straight to an unknown destination, “Mother did say you would like a few moments inside first, and then for us to bring you over. We will wait here for you. And Mother said, bring your dancing shoes, Mrs Black!”  
Thoroughly intrigued, Roger and Rosalin were led indoors by the smiling Mary-Dorothy. “How do you do?” she said. “You must forgive Margaret, it is a rather exciting day for their dancing club, and you are special guests. Perhaps you might make yourselves comfortable, and come down when you are ready? Twins, sit down and wait here for your guests.”  
She led them up a fine staircase to a landing with several rooms leading from it, pointed out bathrooms, and opened the door into a lovely bedroom with a view back down the avenue of beech trees. In a few minutes, the young couple were refreshed and ready to be led off into the unknown.  
As they came down the staircase, Margaret jumped to her feet and said,” There you are! Would you like to come with us now? We are sure you are going to enjoy it.”  
“Well in that case,” said Roger, taking Rosalin’s hand and giving it a squeeze, “we gratefully accept. Lead on twins!”  
“Do you have your dancing shoes?” demanded Margaret of Rosalin, who, laughing at the absurdity of this welcome, waved them in her hand.   
The twins walked as rapidly as was polite, leading their guests through gardens redolent with perfume, and through a gate into the grounds of what looked like to them like a grove of ancient buildings. But there was no time to explain where they were; the young guides led their curious guests down a path to a row of great ilex trees.   
Roger and Rosalin were mightily surprised to hear the music of a violin, well played, and the sounds of movement and laughter of many people, emanating from the great wooden hall which stood behind the row of trees.   
“Here they are!” said the Margaret twin triumphantly, and a beautiful woman with the same bronze hair as the twins came towards them with hand extended. “Dr and Mrs Black, I’m Joy Quellyn. I’m so sorry I wasn’t able to welcome you at the Hall myself. I hope the twins didn’t try to rush you too much?”  
Gravely, Roger assured her that they had not, with a quick conspiratorial smile to the twins.   
“Hello, Lady Quellyn, thank you so much for inviting us,” he said. “But what is this incredible place the twins have brought us to?”  
“And please, we are Roger and Rosalin. Rosamund sends her love and best wishes to you and your family,” said Rosalin, smiling, realizing how genuine was this kind welcome. Her fear of the unknown was evaporating in the face of such generous good feeling, and she felt proud to be bringing the greetings of the Countess to her friend.  
“Thank you, Rosalin, I am so pleased to meet you finally. Rosamund has told us how happy she and Geoffrey are to have you both living close by the Castle now.” Joy led them inside the great wooden structure that they had come to.   
“This is the old tithe-barn; part of the former Grace-Dieu Abbey that you walked through with the twins. We hold all our big dancing parties here, for the Hamlet Club, which is based at the school in Wycombe. Elizabeth and Margaret are this year’s May Queens for the school,” she said proudly.   
“That beautiful place we walked through is an old Abbey?” said Roger. “We were going rather quickly for a good look around.”  
“Oh, you can’t rush seeing the Abbey,” said Joy, Lady Quellyn. “One of us will show you around tomorrow or the next day. The Abbey is the most important part of this place, for most of us, and deserves a long visit.”  
“Elizabeth and Margaret said this is a special occasion,” said Rosalin. “I do hope it’s not inconvenient for us to be visiting at this time.”  
“Not at all,” said Joy, “In fact, it was rather important that you be here! I believe you are friends of the guest of honour, and that makes you very important.”  
Rosalin and Roger looked around the barn, at what seemed to be hundreds of moving dancers, and on a raised platform was another white dressed figure, playing a violin.   
“It’s Cousin Rosalind!” said Rosalin in wonder. She knew her American born cousin was a fine violinist, but she had not previously had a chance to hear her play.   
There was a stirring at the door of the barn, and Rosalin recognized Joan Fraser entering, pushing her baby in his pram. Beside her was a man seated in an invalid chair, being pushed by an older woman. He was smiling broadly and waved to Roger before acknowledging the cheers from the other people in the room.   
Len Fraser had come home to the Abbey, and the Hamlet Club, who loved him, for the sake of their Queen Marigold and for his heroism, had come to welcome him.


	8. Welcome Home Len

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rosalin realises that she has to talk to Janice Fraser.

Elizabeth and Margaret Marchwood reappeared, now robed in long dark green velvet robes, each train held by a little girl, carefully carrying the precious burden. Elizabeth’s had golden flowers on hers, while Margaret’s were white. They walked side by side through the crowd, which parted and stood back to let them through.   
“Mr Fraser,” said Elizabeth, very properly, and to the quiet amusement of all the adults, “on behalf of all the Hamlet Club, and Queens past and present, we welcome you home.”  
“The Club would like you to accept this gift from us all, in recognition of your bravery,” said Margaret, holding out a small gift wrapped in silver paper to him.   
“Thank you, Hamlet Club and Queens,” smiled Len, acknowledging the tribute without embarrassment. This was not the first time that grateful thanks had been conveyed to him and he had learned to accept it with dignity, no matter how little he might feel it was deserved.   
“What was I to do, let Dr Hamilton drown?” he had said privately to Joan. “Any other fellow would have done the same. I just happened to be the nearest one.”  
“I am very glad to be home here with you all, and I look forward to the day that you can teach me how to do your beautiful dances.” There was a great cheer at this, and the violin took up a tune at a nod from Elizabeth, Queen Buttercup. Margaret would take her turn at the violin shortly, for Rosalind could not be expected to play for long.  
Joan and Len were seated to the side of the barn, with baby John’s pram tucked in beside them. Roger and Rosalin were able to spend a few moments greeting them properly, and each being introduced to the other, before they were ushered to chairs near Joan and Len, with other older onlookers. Ivor Quellyn had also introduced himself to Roger and Rosalin, and conversed genially with them while the dancers went through their first dance. Rosalin was intrigued by the dancing, brought up as she had been in the Scottish dancing traditions.   
After a few minutes, Roger nudged Rosalin, and spoke quietly to her. “Look at the person sitting next to Mrs Fraser. They could be sisters?”  
Rosalin started when she saw the second woman with curly dark hair, so similar to Joan Fraser. This must be the mother, also Mrs Fraser, that Aunt Rosamund had called Jandy Mac. But the resemblance that Rosalin noticed was not just to Joan.   
Surely there was a look of Aunt Effie when she was younger? A brightness in the laugh, the shape of the face and Aunt Effie’s characteristic turn of the head? And the dark hair.   
Rosalin felt a strange mixture of dismay and interest. Was there a stranger who belonged to her family, whose history she knew nothing of? What if she were like the man from Canada, Jeffrey Macdonald, whose visit had created such a strain, and would want to pursue some claim on the family?  
There had been an unpleasant time for Rosalin’s great aunt Aunt Kirsty when her nephew, Jeffrey Macdonald, Rosalin’s uncle, had visited from Canada six years ago. He claimed that a letter was in existence, in which the current Earl’s grandfather granted ownership of Vairy Castle to his first wife, Phemie Macdonald Kane and her descendants. That marriage was short-lived due to her death in childbirth. The existence of the letter was proven, but such a bequest was not possible under the terms of inheritance, and so the letter had no legal value. The Canadian, whom Rosalin could not bring herself to call Uncle, had returned to Canada empty handed and she hoped would never come back again.   
Rosalin remembered the conversation with Aunt Rosamund a few weeks before, when she had struggled to remember what the nickname Jandy Mac stood for. Could there be a connection between this Jandy Mac, and Aunt Effie? And to Aunt Kirsty, and the Earl himself? And to Rosalin herself?  
Rosalin knew, and had told Roger’s cousin Patricia, that she had had an uncle who had gone out to Australia, and married a Fraser girl, an emigrant to Australia from Vairy. Incredible as it seemed to her, perhaps this Jandy Mac was somehow related to that uncle?  
“Perhaps I have a cousin or aunt I never knew,” thought Rosalin. “It would be nice to have another relation, more than one, still living. She looks kind. They both do!” She realized that, if Jandy Mac was her relative, then so were Joan and small John. The prospect of being related to young Mrs Fraser was very appealing, for they already had the Countess in common as a friend. How surprised the Countess would be!  
“How can I ask her about her family?” asked Rosalin of her husband Roger that evening. “I can’t just walk up to her and say, I think we may be related.”  
“Why not?” said Roger. “But you deal with this your own way, my girl. Perhaps when we visit the Frasers tomorrow a way will become clear to you.”  
“Don’t you see, though,” said Rosalin, “that if I am related to them, then they may also be related to Uncle Geoffrey and Rosamund? I am sure if Rosamund already knew that, she would have mentioned it. There may be some reason why it has never been discussed that we don’t understand.”  
Roger looked thoughtful; this was an aspect of the situation that had not occurred to him. He had been friends with the folk of Kentisbury Castle for a long time, and no Australian connection had ever been referred to.   
“Perhaps you are right to take it slowly,” he said. “But they are all such great friends. I can’t believe it would be anything other than a source of pleasure to realise they are related.”  
A smiling Queen Elizabeth, or Buttercup, came to invite Rosalin to join a longways dance, and, hastily changing her shoes, Rosalin spent the next hour enjoying the novelty of the English dances. Her own experience of Scottish reels meant that she picked up many of the dances quickly, and Roger watched with increasing pleasure as her light figure and golden hair moved among the crowds of dancers.   
The next morning, a tour of the Abbey was undertaken in the company of a girl who wore a long white woolen robe, and wore a badge titled “Abbey Guardian”. She introduced herself as Rachel, and Roger and Rosalin followed her through the buildings of the Abbey, and then down through well-lit passages into the crypt where they could see the grave of the old lay brother, Ambrose, who had saved many features that belonged to the church, during the dissolution of the monasteries, and ended his days in the old gate-house. They heard of the discoveries of the tunnels, the bells, the tithe-barn, the jewels and plate of the cathedral, and, as friends of the family, more personal stories of the Abbey family. As with all previous visitors of sensitivity, the Abbey began to weave its spell of welcome on them.


	9. Rosalin Speaks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rosalin tells Janice about the family connection.

"The Miss Frasers are kind old ladies - well, elderly, anyway, - who look after everybody in the village," Patch explained to the boys. "They've had training as nurses and everybody goes to them for help. Their father was the factor at Vairy; that means steward or overseer. And they're very slightly related to Rosalin, for her uncle who went to Australia married a Fraser girl, who had gone out there from Vairy. I knew they'd be looking after Aunt Kirsty." - from "Secrets of Vairy".

Rosalin speaks  
After lunch with the Quellyn family, Roger and Rosalin paid their visit to the house known as the Herb Garden, passing again through the Abbey gardens, and through the gate-house garden, made by Rachel’s sister, and now cared for by Benedicta Bennett, whom they saw working among the tall lilies and roses.   
The Herb Garden was surrounded by a low picket fence, and had flagstone paths stretching between curved beds of waving herbs of many kinds, southernwood, yarrow, rosemary, and thyme. The sound of bees in the aromatic flowers was distinctly summery, and the row of dark green ilex trees provided an harmonious backdrop to the low-eaved stone and brick house which looked to have always been there, despite having only been constructed in the previous year.   
“Welcome,” said Joan Fraser, smiling as she walked down the path towards them. “Do come round to the sun terrace – Len is out there already with John and Mother. Do you like our new house?”  
“Your house looks beautiful, Mrs Fraser,” said Roger. “Did you design it yourselves?”  
“Please, call me Joan! With help from our friends,” said Joan. “Sir Ken and Lady Marchwood are very interested in architecture and design, and they showed us pictures of some of the arts and crafts houses in this area and down in Devon. We decided to keep some bedrooms on the lower level, and a bathroom on each level, which is just as well…”  
“Hello Roger and Rosalin!” came a strong voice through the garden, as they rounded the corner of the house onto a bricked terrace, through a metal trellis planted with climbing roses. There in his invalid chair was Len Fraser, with his mother-in-law Janice seated beside him.   
“Len, Mrs Fraser, what a beautiful place,” said Roger, as he and Rosalin took their chairs on the terrace. “The stone you have used matches the other buildings so well.”  
“Thank you, Roger,” said Joan, deeply gratified. “We were lucky to find that the quarry where the stones where other buildings nearby, including the Abbey, came from, was still in operation and so could match the stones exactly.”  
They chatted quietly, and when little John stirred, Joan took him inside to attend to his needs for half an hour. Len’s nurse took the opportunity to wheel Len inside as well, inviting the others to follow in a few moments, as tea was nearly ready.  
“I believe you both know Scotland very well,” said Mrs Fraser, or Janice, as they had been asked to call Joan’s mother.   
Roger looked expectantly at Rosalin; here might be the opening she had been seeking.  
“I grew up in the district near Vairy Castle,” began Rosalin hesitantly.   
“Vairy!” exclaimed Janice. “My grandfather Fraser was factor there for many years, to the old Earl. I was fortunate to visit my grandparents there on two occasions, and also my dear old Aunt Mary who ended her days there recently.”  
“There are certainly a lot of Fraser people in the area,” said Rosalin cautiously. “Joan is also Mrs Fraser, I noticed.”  
“Yes,” laughed Janice, “it can be very confusing! It’s rather like when Joy Quellyn and Jen Marchwood were first married; Joy was Lady Marchwood, and Jen was little Lady Marchwood! My husband Alec is my second cousin, but Joan’s husband is no relation, as far as we know!”  
“Did you have other relatives in the district?” prompted Roger, ignoring a pleading look from Rosalin. Jandy noticed the look and wondered what lay behind it.   
“My father’s name was John Macdonald, but he emigrated to Australia,” said Jandy Mac. “I never knew him and lost Mother when I was two. I was brought up by an aunt. I never knew much about his family.”  
Roger and Rosalin exchanged looks again. Was this the time to speak?  
“My father had a brother John, who went to Australia,” said Rosalin bravely. “We think that he may have been your father.”  
Jandy Mac looked startled, then looked hard at Rosalin as if seeing her for the first time. At that moment, Joan returned, carrying baby John, and sat beside Rosalin, as if on cue.   
With the curly dark brown and golden heads side by side, the similarities in facial shape, and the same lively expression, were evident to both Roger and Janice.   
“So you were Rosalin Macdonald?” asked Janice, incredulously.   
“Yes,” said Rosalin, as Joan looked enquiringly from one to the other. “My father only died a few years ago. We lived with my aunt Effie Macdonald. Your father’s sister… your aunt.”  
“Your father was my father’s brother,” repeated Janice slowly. “You are my first cousin?”  
“I think so,” said Rosalin tremulously.   
Janice stood up quickly and walked away to the end of the garden.   
Rosalin looked after her, lips trembling as if she might break down; Joan reached for her hand and squeezed it. “Don’t worry; Mother never likes anyone to see when she is upset. Wait till she comes back – she will tell you how much this means to her. This makes us a type of cousin too!” she said exultantly. “I haven’t heard anything so marvellous in a long time!”  
Janice came back, drying her eyes with a handkerchief. She held out her hands to Rosalin. “I am so sorry, my dear Rosalin,” she said. “You must have thought me unhappy to hear this news. But the truth is, I am so very, very happy. It has been such a long time since I had people of my own – apart from Alec and the children of course! My own little cousin - ” Janice drew Rosalin into an embrace and kissed her cheek, holding her close for many moments.   
“Now let’s go in for tea and talk this over! Everything makes more sense over a cup of tea! My goodness,” she said, drawing Rosalin’s arm through hers, “what will Geoffrey and Rosamund think.”


	10. Weaving the Threads

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Janice and Rosalin puzzle through their family connections, much to Joan's surprise.

Janice Fraser had always known that her grandfather, Mr Fraser, had been factor to the Earl of Kentisbury. That long-lived Earl, Geoffrey Kane, had been the present Earl’s father, but Janice had never mentioned her grandfather to him. The current Earl himself seemed unaware of Janice’s connection to the former factor of Vairy Castle, and it was certainly not known to Rosamund, his Countess. The connection was by employment only, not family. It was quite possible that Earl had never met his father’s Vairy factor. Neither Geoffrey nor Rosamund had ever suspected that there might be a family connection to link their Australian visitor, Jandy Mac, to the Kane family.  
Jandy’s sudden return to Samoa during her visit, six years ago, due to her husband’s new appointment, meant that a planned visit to Scotland, where she might have met young Christina Rosalin Macdonald, her first cousin, was postponed, and thus that chance to understand the family connection with the Kane family was lost.  
“Now, let’s try to unravel this mystery,” said Janice, after they had all enjoyed tea and cakes. “I wonder how it was that I didn’t meet your father, Rosalin, when I came to Vairy back before I married, when I was still Janice Macdonald.”  
“Father and Mother lived away over on another loch,” said Rosalin, “with Aunty Effie. Unless he knew you were coming, there would have been no reason for you to meet.”  
“The visit was really to my Fraser family,” agreed Janice. “Do you think your father knew my grandparents? Grandfather Fraser was the factor to the old Earl.”  
“I am sure he would have known of him. And there were the Misses Fraser, who were nurses in the district. Everyone knew and admired them,” said Rosalin cautiously. Factors were not always popular people in small Scottish villages, for their job was to protect the lands and buildings of the distant owners, sometimes to the detriment of small landholders in the vicinity.  
“The Misses Fraser were my other aunts,” said Janice. “I did meet them all when I visited with Aunt Mary. My Mother was their sister.”  
“They were lovely people, so generous and kind to everyone. I think by the time you visited, there may have been no-one living in Vairy Castle. The old Earl rarely visited the castle,” explained Rosalin. “Until Great Aunt Rosabel came to live there, Vairy castle was mostly empty.”  
“Tell me about Great Aunt Rosabel, please?” said Janice. “I suppose we must be related to her as well as you? How strange that we are using the names of two of the Kentisbury twins to talk about our – my – relations!”  
“Lady Rosabel Kane was the aunt of the present Earl, Uncle Geoffrey, until her recent death,” explained Rosalin.  
“Did she ever marry?” asked Janice.  
“No,” said Rosalin. “She was to be married, but her fiancé Victor was killed in a duel! He was French. She was invited to live in Vairy Castle for the last five years of her life by her brother, the old Earl. She was ninety when she died. Aunt Kirsty Macdonald cared for her and was her best friend.”  
“Do you know about Patricia Kane’s emerald jewelled collar?” asked Roger, in an aside to Janice. “It was given to Lady Rosabel by her father, as a wedding present, but she never got to wear it as a bride.”  
“Oh yes,” said Janice. “Rosamund told me how lovely Patricia looks when she wears it, with her bright red hair.”  
“Who was Aunt Kirsty Macdonald?” said Joan, much puzzled by all the various strands of the family. Roger and Len laughed, having both struggled to follow the genealogical puzzles. Roger knew rather more, though, than he was letting on.  
“Aunt Kirsty – really Great-aunt Kirsty - was our Grandfather Macdonald’s sister. Aunt Kirsty was aunt to our fathers and to Aunt Effie! And our great-aunt,” said Christina Rosalin succinctly.  
“I love the way you say ‘our fathers’,” said Janice. “It makes me understand that they really were brothers, and we really are cousins. But I still don’t understand about Great Aunt Rosabel.”  
“I hope I can explain it,” said Rosalin, “but you may also need to talk to Uncle Geoffrey.”  
“The Earl Jeffrey married twice,” continued Rosalin. “His first wife was Phemie Macdonald, from Vairy. He told her that he was not the Earl, but rather the Earl’s cousin, to convince her to marry him. You see, she never wanted to be a Countess. She died giving birth to our grandmother, Rosalin,” said Phemie’s great grand-daughter Rosalin.  
“Poor Phemie,” said Janice.  
“That early Earl was named Jeffery, with a J. He was our great grandfather, and he married again quite quickly. He and his new rich wife Sarah had two sons and a daughter,” continued Rosalin. “The two sons were the one we call the “old Earl”, and Aunt Rosamund’s grandfather, Hugh Kane. Their sister was Great Aunt Rosabel.”  
“For a while, there was a concern that the Lord Kentisbury’s title might have to go to Bill Kane,” said Roger. “Did you know that? The Earl Jeffery-with-a-J had a brother, Bill’s great grandfather. When Roddy came along, that stopped the succession going to Bill. He was very relieved,” laughed Roger reminiscently.  
“Ah I understand,” said Janice. “And Bill has married Patricia, and they have the twin boy and girl, Roger and Rosella.”  
Joan looked at Roger with interest. “Was the little Roger named for you?”  
“Yes,” said Roger. “I know Bill and Patricia very well. We were friends as children, and with young Geoff, the Earl who died so young. And Tansy at the Castle.”  
There was a pause while everyone enjoyed another round of tea and cakes. So much information to digest was hard work.  
But Janice and Joan were determined to understand the full story, and while Roger and Len took a turn around the garden, Rosalin resumed her story.  
“Phemie’s daughter, Rosalin Kane – Lady Rosalin Kane - married another Macdonald from Vairy, and had three sons, and a daughter – the sons were our two fathers, and their brother Jeffery Macdonald in Canada. The daughter was Aunt Effie. I don’t think any of them ever met the old Earl.”  
“The old Earl is the next part of the story. He had three sons as well!”  
“Three sons in three families!” exclaimed Janice. “I am glad Geoffrey and Rosamund have kept up that tradition with Hugh, Geoffrey and Peter.”  
“I hadn’t thought of that,” said Rosalin, amused. “Of the old Earl’s three sons, the oldest married, and had a son and daughter. He was an airman and died in the war. His son became the next Earl, ‘the little earl’ - but he was killed in a motorcycle crash when he was sixteen.”  
“That was young Geoff!” exclaimed Janice. This part of the history was well known to her, for by that death had Rosamund become Countess, on marrying her Geoffrey.  
“The second son also died, a week after his nephew, young Geoff, so he was Earl for a week. He had four daughters – whom you know.”  
“The Ladies Rosalind, Virginia, Amanda and Araminta,” added Janice, nodding.  
“Yes,” said Rosalin, “and the youngest son, Uncle Geoffrey, was an invalid, until his marriage to Aunt Rosamund, his distant cousin.” She finished triumphantly, having, she hoped, successfully woven together the threads that made up this complex family tapestry.  
“I think I understand it all now. Sisters, brothers, four generations. How fascinating, and how wonderful to be a small part of such a large family. But let me see if I can work out how are you related to Lord Kentisbury,” said Janice slowly. “Phemie’s daughter Rosalin, our grandmother, must have been Geoffrey’s aunt, because his father, the old Earl, as you call him, was her half-brother. So Rosalin’s children, our fathers and Effie, are Geoffrey’s cousins. Does that sound right?”  
“That’s right,” said Rosalin. “I call him Uncle, but he is really my father’s cousin. And your father’s cousin too,” she added mischievously, wondering how Janice would react to this piece of the puzzle.  
“I remember,” said Joan, “that the Countess introduced you as Lord Kentisbury’s cousin, and said that she was glad you didn’t call her Aunt!”  
“Rosamund is not my aunt,” said Rosalin earnestly. “You, Mrs Janice Fraser, are my first cousin. Rosamund is our second cousin, and Lord Kentisbury is a first cousin, once removed. Their children are my – our - second cousins, once removed.”  
“Well that is a relief, and a delight,” breathed Janice. “But Second Cousin Rosamund! Now that is a shock for us all.”  
“Especially the Countess Cousin Rosamund, I should think,” laughed Len, returning with Roger pushing his invalid chair as this piece of news was announced. “How on earth will you break the news to her?”  
“It was harder wondering how to break the news to all of you,” confessed Rosalin. “I suppose I wasn’t sure if you would be pleased.”  
“Rosalin, dear,” said Janice, loving feeling in every word and look, “you have given me such a great gift today. I will remember this day at the Herb Garden forever.”  
“And I have found more family than I ever dreamed I had,” said Rosalin. “Shall I tell Lady Quellyn our story yet?”  
“May we keep it a secret just a little longer?” asked Janice. “I would like to write to Alec to know our story before we let all our friends know. I’ve been an adopted cousin for fifteen years… a few more days won’t make any difference. Perhaps we can think of a way to announce this to everyone.”  
“I’m not sure if I can keep it from Cousin Rosamund and Cousin Geoffrey,” said Rosalin slowly. “They will be sure to see that something has changed.”  
“Aren’t they going away for a week to London?” said Roger. “That gives us a little time.”  
Rosalin looked at her husband gratefully. His use of the word ‘us’ showed her that he saw these revelations as something they would tackle together. Both of them were thinking that there was yet another thread to be woven into this story, a thread of the colour of garnets.  
“What are you views on the situation in Germany?” said Len, effectively taking the afternoon’s discussion on a new course.


	11. Benedicta's Tom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A friend of Roger Black's has met Benedicta.

The final evening of Roger and Rosalin’s visit to Abinger Hall was a festive one. Joy Quellyn had organized a dinner for them, inviting the Marchwood family from next door, and Jandy Mac, as their guests, while Joan and Len had an early night with their baby John. Of course, Mary-Dorothy Devine was part of the family, as Joy and Ivor’s capable secretary, and the twins were now old enough to join in adult parties. Benedicta, returned from her brief holiday in Norfolk, was also invited, as her acquaintance with the Abbey folk was beyond that of just employee.   
Small David, Richard and Maidie-Rose ate earlier and Joy and Ivor always enjoyed being part of their small ‘dinner parties’, as Margaret-Twin called them. Jen’s twins, and small Barbara and Simon stayed at home with their nurses, but Andrew, Tony, and Rosemary joined the adult party, while Katharine and Mike played quiet games with their friends David and Richard in the nursery upstairs, under the careful supervision of one of Joy’s nurses.   
Rosalin, Roger and Janice had no difficulty avoiding their secret in the animated conversation among such a party of friends. After dinner, Joy played the piano while Elizabeth and Margaret danced the minuet that been part of the earliest story of the Abbey Girls. The spirits of the youthful Joy and Joan Shirley were recreated by the twins, who resembled them both so closely. Then tall Jen suggested a dance for four, and stretched a hand to Rosalin.   
“I’m sure you know some of these dances, Rosalin,” said Jen, “even if the Scottish versions are slightly different.”  
Ken Marchwood smiled as his wife, mother of nine, looking scarcely older than when he had first met her in the grounds of the Abbey, walked through the graceful movements of the dance with the twins and Rosalin. A children’s dance followed, for Andrew, Tony and Rosemary were all experienced and keen dancers. With Elizabeth and Margaret, and a nervous Benedicta making up the six, an energetic dance took place, to the tune of Jen’s pipe which she played using one hand.  
Benedicta returned to her seat near Janice, Roger and Rosalin, fanning her face after the exertion. “I must be terribly out of practice,” she said. “I haven’t been to many dances lately.”  
“Did you enjoy Norfolk?” asked Janice, remembering their conversation of a few weeks ago.   
“Oh yes,” said Benedicta, “it is a very beautiful part of the country. So different to here, and to the Chiltern hills.”  
“One of my best friends lives up there,” said Roger. “He and I were at medical school together and I used to visit him sometimes. We would go sailing with his friends. His name is Tom, Tom Dudgeon.”  
An additional touch of colour appeared in Benedicta’s already flushed cheeks.  
“I did meet Mr Dudgeon,” she said, quite primly. “I was at school with his friends, Nell and Bess Farland, and they introduced me to him. We all went sailing together. He called Nell ‘Starboard’ and Bess ‘Port’.” Everyone laughed at the apt nicknames for sailors.   
“How is old Tom?” said Roger. “I believe he is going to take on his father’s practice when he retires, just as I have done.”  
“Yes,” said Benedicta. “I believe that is his plan. Everyone is very pleased about it. His younger brother is still up at Oxford presently.”  
“We should invite Tom down for a visit, Rosalin,” continued Roger. “He would find this part of the country very different to the Broads. I would like him to meet Len too. He’s very interested in therapies for spinal injuries of the type Len has had, and may have some good ideas that may help with his recovery.” Benedicta looked at her hands, and said nothing.   
Later that evening, Rosalin spoke shrewdly to Roger. “If we do invite Tom Dudgeon to visit, we had better bring him to see the Abbey garden,” she said.   
“That’s a good idea,” said Roger, “and we can introduce him to Len and Joan.”  
“I was thinking that someone else might be pleased to see him,” hinted Rosalin.   
“I say, do you think so?” whistled Roger. “Is that the way the wind blows in the Broads? Well, it will be interesting to see if anything develops from it.”  
On the drive home to Kentisbury next day, Roger brought up the issue which both had avoided while staying at the Hall. “Now, what about the garnets, my girl? Do you think we should do anything about them?” asked Roger.   
“I would like to show them to Janice and Joan,” said Rosalin. “I am really not sure now who should have them. Aunt Effie said they belong to the oldest girl in each generation in our family, but Uncle Geoffrey talks about the jewelled collars being given to Kentisbury brides. I don’t really know what the tradition is. If Aunt Effie is right, then should Mrs Fraser – Janice, that is, not Joan - have the collar?”  
“I must admit that is what I was thinking,” said Roger. “But you are definitely a Kentisbury bride, my girl! Perhaps this is a question for your Uncle Geoffrey. Or should I say, Cousin Geoffrey?”


	12. Gathering of the Clan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alec Fraser is home, and Rosamund invites all the friends to the Castle to celebrate.

There was rejoicing at the Herb Garden, for Alec, Janice’s husband and Joan’s father, had come home to England and would sail the South Seas no more.  
“You are all used to it by now,” said the sailor to his wife on the first evening after his return, “but it is a big shock to me to see young Len in that invalid chair.”  
“I wouldn’t say we are used to it,” said Janice, “but we have come to accept it. I just hope every day that he will recover and be able to walk again.”  
“Yes, I hope for that too. At least here is the perfect healing place for them to live. You have worked wonders on this house, my girl,” said Alec. “I’m hoping we can find a place at least as beautiful as this to be our home. Those roses are calling me!”  
“Benedicta Bennett, the Abbey gardener, gave me her precious copy of Gerard’s Herbal to read,” said Janice. “It’s interesting that you describe this as a place of healing, for so many of the garden herbs were for healing. Yarrow, in particular. I love the garden even more for that reason. Perhaps you are right, and it will help to heal Len.”  
Alec’s arrival coincided with the summer school holidays, so a great returning of boys from their school in Yorkshire had already taken place. Alastair and Alan Fraser had gone directly to Joan Raymond’s home with their friends John and Jim, and now Alec and Janice would be joining them. This would take them much closer to Kentisbury Castle where their youngest children, Cecily and Janet, were being cared for, and the whole family looked forward to being reunited.  
“I worry about leaving Littlejan, but she is much more confident now with little John,” said Janice. “And I am missing my babies!”  
“Littlejan and Little John, how funny that sounds,” remarked the very proud new grandfather. Alec had sat holding and gazing at John for an hour that afternoon, secretly surprised at his own emotion at the sight of this newest member of the family, his daughter’s firstborn son.  
Joan Raymond welcomed them both the next day, with open arms. Janice’s namesake, Janice or Jansy Raymond, was beside her mother, to welcome the Frasers to their home. Additions in previous years to Rayley, home of the Raymond family, had made the house spacious and accommodating for guests as well as Joan’s own large family. The boys had decided though, to make the most of the perfect summer weather and to camp in the orchard adjoining the house, gleefully putting up tents and making mattresses of straw.  
“Alastair has a friend at school who goes camping every summer in tents, often on an island in the Lake District,” laughed Joan. “Our John has been mad about camping ever since Alastair told him about Roger Walker and his family.”  
“We are all invited to the Castle on Friday night,” said Joan later, when the new arrivals had settled into their rooms and had a joyful reunion with tall Alastair and his younger brother Alan, who was also showing signs of growing tall. “Rosamund and Geoffrey are looking forward so much to seeing Alec again.”  
“Alec met Geoffrey and Rosamund very briefly at Littlejan’s coronation as the Marigold Queen,” said Janice thoughtfully. “And now Joan is married with a baby! I can’t quite believe even now all that has happened.”  
“And that Janice finishes school this year. My first baby, almost grown up,” said Joan, to her friend.  
“And Alastair,” said Janice, recalling the recent conversation at the Hall. Janice was sure Joan would know of the impending threats from Europe. Joan’s husband, formerly Captain Raymond, was deep in conversation with the sailors Alec Fraser and Bill Kane, and Janice could tell it was about serious subjects, not just house building.  
“I wish the future for all our children looked brighter,” said Joan, confirming Janice’s expectation. Her own calm and happy life faced uncertainty now that the threat of conscription, even for returned servicemen such as Jack, and young men and women such as Janice and Alastair, was being considered. The impending war itself was too ghastly to contemplate.  
“Rosamund and I have talked about the possibility of opening our homes as evacuation points for children from the cities, if that becomes necessary,” Joan continued. “Maidlin and Joy may do the same.”  
“You are still carrying the torch on behalf of the Abbey, then, giving sanctuary to those who need it,” said Janice, remembering past days when each of them had realized the influence the Abbey and its atmosphere had had on their lives.  
“I hope so,” said Joan. “I like to think we can bring its peace and tranquility into our homes for others as well, even in the midst of chaos. I don’t remember the bombing of London, but Mother did, and she was always found those memories very distressing. I remember a school in Kent which was evacuated up to Scotland, after a bomb fell in a paddock nearby. All the windows on one side of the building were smashed. Some friends were students there. It was very frightening for them.”  
“Do you think it is likely that there would be bombing again if war does break out?” asked Janice, deeply troubled by this possibility. As a child in Sydney during the first war, she had had no such experience.  
“I would imagine so,” said Joan. “But they would be mainly attacking cities and industrial areas. Thankfully we can’t be classified as either of those. Coastal areas with ports and ships, and aerodromes, would be targeted too.”  
“Will you forgive me if I change the subject, even though it seems frivolous to do so? But I have something rather interesting to tell you all this evening,” said Janice, feeling apologetic at moving the conversation away from such weighty and important ideas.  
“I think we will all enjoy an interesting story,” said Joan Raymond. “We can’t only think about the fear of the future; we have to live the present too. Can you give me a hint about your story?”  
“No,” laughed Janice, “You all have to hear it at once. It is too complicated to tell often!”  
Mystified and amused, Joan laughed too and agreed to curb her curiosity.  
Having been warned though, that there was to be some kind of announcement, she wondered if the other guests had been similarly prepared.  
“Does Rosamund know that you have a story to tell?” Joan asked.  
“Again, no!” said Janice. “Alec and I think the Countess will enjoy the story though.”  
Thus it was, that the Rayley party joyfully met Ken and Jen from the Manor, Joy and Ivor from the Hall, and Maidlin and Jock from the Pallant, at the Castle of Lord and Lady Kentisbury, later in the week. They were joined by Roger and Rosalin Black, Bill and Patricia Kane, and Littlejan also attended, although Len was perforce unable to leave the Herb Garden.  
The grand banquet hall of the castle was pressed into service for such a special occasion, and at a hint from Rosamund, each of her friends wore their favourite jewellery, in honour of Alec’s return. Rosamund wore the sapphires given to her by all her friends as wedding presents; Patricia, with her vivid copper coloured hair, composed and gracious, proudly wore the remarkable gold and emerald necklace that had been made for Lady Rosella back in the time of Henry VIII. Rosalin, with some misgivings, wore the similarly constructed silver necklace with garnets, that had been given to her by her aunt Effie.  
The bronze haired cousins, Joan and Joy, both wore emeralds, Joan Raymond emeralds, were a gift from her husband’s family on the occasion of their marriage many years ago. Joy Quellyn wore the emeralds which were her wedding gift from Ivor, and Jen Marchwood the rubies which had been her mother’s.  
Janice had a beautiful necklet of Australian opals, presented by her husband just a few days before, which she proudly wore for the first time. Littlejan wore the circle of moonstones given to her by Len on their marriage. Maidlin Robertson was also wearing rubies, which matched her engagement ring and had been a gift from her husband on the birth of their twin girls.  
“Aren’t we grand,” sighed young Joan. “I wish Len could have been here.” She was happy to be part of the occasion, but sad that her husband had been unable to accompany her. He had urged her to go, knowing the nature of the announcement that was to be made, and she had travelled with Ken and Jen, Joy and Ivor, in the big car from the Hall. Joan had promised to tell him all the details later.  
“I hope you and Len are enjoying your new home,” said Maidlin. She and Joan had known each other less than the other members of the Abbey and Castle families, and both were finding quiet pleasure in getting to know the other. “I remember how much fun we had in our first year at the Pallant, planning and making the gardens, and getting to know the house.”  
“I feel the same way,” said Joan in delight. “I come across an afternoon view from a window, that I haven’t noticed before, and I am still learning all the treasures our house holds for us. Getting to know the house – I like that idea. Thank you Maidlin.”  
To make an even number, a young friend of Rosalin and Roger, Dr Tom Dudgeon, who was visiting them, was invited as well. Joan Fraser was seated next to Tom Dudgeon, and before long found herself explaining about her husband’s accident to the sympathetic listener. Roger Black watched intently from the other side of the table, having hoped that this opportunity would present itself. His friend Tom was a specialist in spinal injuries and he was certain that Tom might be able to suggest some new therapies for Len.  
After the long banquet of many courses, the company retired to a comfortable sitting room, amply provided with lounges and chairs, and displaying interesting cabinets of the collections of former generations of residents of the Castle. Delicate porcelain figurines, miniatures on ivory, an intriguing collection of antique watches and carriage clocks, and a priceless collection of illustrated manuscripts, were among the treasures on display.  
The guests moved among them, commenting on and admiring the articles, which were kept only for the pleasure of the family and not on public display. As coffee and port were served, and everyone took their seats, Janice took a quiet moment to speak.


	13. Macdonalds and Kanes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The family connections are revealed to the Earl and Countess.

“Rosamund, Geoffrey, everyone, Rosalin and I would like to tell you a story,” she began. There was interest and surprise on some faces, understanding on a few, and curiosity on others.   
“What kind of story, Janice?” asked Rosamund, highly amused. “Is it a guessing game?”  
“In a way,” responded Janice. “It seemed a very complicated tale when first I heard it, and I have thought hard about how to tell it, so I hope it won’t be hard to follow. It was hard to know where to start!”  
Everyone composed themselves comfortably, prepared to be entertained.   
“Most of you know that my nickname is Jandy Mac.” The visitors from the Abbey, the Hall, and the Pallant, and the Earl and Countess nodded, while Bill and Patricia looked interested.   
“It is a shortened version of my name – Janice Macdonald. And most of you know that Rosalin,” she said, gesturing towards Rosalin, “was, before her marriage to Roger, Rosalin Macdonald.”  
“I was able to tell Janice that our fathers were brothers,” said Rosalin bravely. Rosalin had got to the heart of the matter in a moment.  
This statement was enough to provoke uproar, for most of those present understood immediately, if only in part, the implications of Rosalin’s announcement.   
Geoffrey Kane, to whom it mattered most, sat gazing at Janice as if he had not known her before, digesting the colouring, face and manner of the woman he had known only as Mrs Janice Fraser. For he understood, more than most, what Rosalin’s statement had meant. Mrs Fraser looked nothing like a Kane, but she certainly looked like a Macdonald. There was a portrait of his grandmother Rosalin in these very halls, and although she was born a Kane, there were echoes of her face in the face of Janice.  
“My dear Janice, if your father and Rosalin’s were brothers, then your grandmother was my own aunt, Lady Rosalin Macdonald. She was half-sister to the old Earl, my father. Your fathers, Janice and Rosalin, were my first cousins. So you are also my first cousins, although one generation removed. Rosalin, we knew of and have already warmly welcomed. My dear Janice, a very belated welcome to the family,” said the earl kindly and sincerely.   
“Jandy Mac, this is the most wonderful news. It makes me so happy to know you are part of our family,” said Rosamund. “Since Jandy Mac is your cousin, Geoffrey, is she not also my cousin?”  
“Yes, I believe you share great-grandparents, and thus you are second cousins.”  
Rosamund rose from her chair and raised Janice to her feet, holding her hands. “Remember all those years ago, Jandy Mac, when I said I had stolen the cream off the family milk? I was right!” said Rosamund triumphantly. “You were my relation, and Geoffrey’s, before you were anyone’s friend! And now you will always be both.” The normally undemonstrative Rosamund hugged Janice warmly.  
Joy and Joan, and Jen, looked shocked at this surprising news. Their own Jandy Mac and therefore Littlejan too, revealed now as unquestionably part of the Kane family, through Jandy’s grandmother Rosalin!  
“What am I,” asked Joan Fraser, deeply moved by the sight of her mother and Rosamund, standing together as relatives. “I must be a cousin too?”  
“Yes,” said the Earl. “You and your brothers and sisters are my first cousins, twice removed, and Rosamund’s second cousins, once removed.”  
“Gracious,” said Joan, overwhelmed at such complexity, and feeling a sense of honour. “Does that make little John, your first cousin, three times removed?”  
“Right!” declared the Earl. ”By George, I think she’s got it!” he laughed.  
“All of our children of the same generation are third cousins?” asked Janice doubtfully, her arm around Rosamund’s waist. The two tall Kane descendants, one fair and one dark, stood proudly together, united in a previously unthought of way.  
“Yes, I think so,” said Geoffrey Kane. “Our three boys and our two sets of twin girls, and your children, Janice, are all third cousins to each other. Young Roderick, of course, is your second cousin, the same as Rosamund. But, as you and Rosalin are first cousins, then your children are first cousins to Rosalin, once removed.”  
“I suddenly have a lot more cousins than I ever thought possible,” smiled Rosalin, and Janice agreed, both revelling in the impact of their declaration, for themselves and their friends, and now, relatives.   
“I understand how you must all feel,” said quiet Maidlin Robertson, “I was so pleased when I found out about Rachel and Damaris, my cousins. Before, I had been rather alone in the world – except for dear Joy and Joan of course,” she added, smiling warmly at her adopted mother. “It’s like finding you have not only a present and future, but a past you didn’t know about. You will all have so much to explore with each other.”  
“How is it that we haven’t know all this before, Jandy Mac?” demanded Jen, Lady Marchwood. She had sat listening and thinking, and couldn’t hold back her mock outrage any longer. “We’ve known you longer than we have known Rosamund and Maidlin!”  
“Forgive me Jen, I only found out recently too. You have to remember,” said Janice, “that I never knew my father, John Macdonald. And in Sydney, I was brought up by my Fraser aunties. Then when I went to Scotland for the first time, it was to visit my Fraser family, including my grandparents. Geoffrey,” she said, turning to the Earl, “I wonder if you knew my grandfather Fraser, who was factor at Vairy for many years?”

“Well bless my soul,” said the nonplussed Earl, “I knew of old Mr Fraser for years, but never met him. Before Rosamund and I met, I really didn’t travel much, and never got to Vairy until our honeymoon! There are so many Frasers in the area, it never occurred to me to place you among them, and of course, I hardly knew them. It is news to me today that you were a Macdonald, or I might have thought of the connection to my aunt Rosalin.”

“I’ve just thought of something wonderful,” said Joan Fraser. “We must also be related to Rosalind – Nanta-Rose? Wait till she finds out that we are a sort of cousin!”

“Rosalind is of the same generation as our children, in relationship to you, Littlejan,” smiled the Earl. “So you are second cousins, once removed.”  
There was deep satisfaction of a unique kind in the hearts of all present. For a family to lose track of sons and daughters who had travelled to the far ends of the Earth, was not uncommon in this age of travel and emigration. To successfully unite their descendants, and to see them able to become friends and support each other in the way that only families can, was a great joy.   
Joy and Joan, and Jen, seated near each other, looked at each other, each feeling deep emotion. Jen said, “Wait till we tell Mary-Dorothy. To see Jandy Mac take her rightful place as one of Rosamund’s family, is as if the last brushstroke of a beautiful painting has finally been made. I know Mary would say that the plan has been there all along, and it just took the right people to meet and to trust each other, to make it come to pass.”


	14. The Garnet Links

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rosalin makes a generous gesture, and is rewarded with another.

"Bill lifted out the Kentisbury collar,   
with its gold band studded with small stones and its seven hanging emeralds.  
"Gosh! It's the real thing!" Roger murmured. "It's worth a fortune, old man!"  
"This note lay underneath." Bill read the words aloud.   
""My wedding gift from my father. I was so happy. But I never wore it."   
She never wore it because she never was a Kentisbury bride,   
but she treasured it all through her long life, with her engagement ring.”" From "Secrets of Vairy"

"Aunt Effie gave it to me, before she died, last spring. She was my real aunt, Father's only sister, and she said I was too young to have it but that there was no one else. It has to be passed on to the eldest girl in each generation of our family. Great Aunt Kirsty didn't have it, for she wasn't the eldest girl in her family. Aunt Effie told me to keep it safely, as it had been in our family for a hundred years."  
“In the case lay a jewelled band, about an inch in depth, made of silver and set with dark red stones. At intervals single stones hung down, six small ones and one larger piece to make a centre pendant.”  
From "Secrets of Vairy"

"Our brides have been given collars like that, as part of their jewels, for centuries;   
Lady Verriton, mother of young Geoff, has a ruby one, that her husband had made for her.   
She's very dark. Rhoda, her girl, will have it some day and it will look lovely on her.   
The new countess had one made of pearls, that Lady Verriton gave her for her wedding gift; they'd been saved for Geoff's wife, and as he had gone, Lady Verriton gave them to the new countess.   
She wore them for her wedding and looked a real Kentisbury bride."  
"And they're always the same shape?" Patch asked.  
"Always that pattern; the standing up band, made of gold or silver,  
and the seven pendants, the middle one being the largest.  
There's one that's an heirloom, a splendid thing of diamonds; it started the custom.”   
From "Secrets of Vairy"

“There is something else I want to say,” said Rosalin, rising to her feet.   
“Aunt Effie, or Euphemia, our fathers’ sister, gave me this garnet collar, a family heirloom,” she said, touching the jewel at her neck. “Our grandmother Rosalin had given it to her. There were other Macdonald girls that Aunt Effie felt should have had it instead of her, so she never wore it. She said it was supposed to go to the oldest girl of each generation in the family.”  
Rosalin turned to face Janice. “Janice, I think this garnet collar should be given to you, as the elder Macdonald girl in our generation. There are only the two of us. You could then pass it on to Joan.” Patricia and Bill looked at each other, and at Roger. They all knew how proud Rosalin was of this gift, and what it would mean to her to give it up.   
“Oh, my dear Rosalin,” said Janice, quite overcome, taking both her hands. “That is generous and kind of you, but I can’t possibly take Aunt Effie’s gift, for she truly believed it should come to you.”  
“I’ve had the thrill of wearing it tonight. It would suit you more, though,” said Rosalin. “You are much more a Macdonald than I am, with your dark colouring. Garnets are for dark hair, not yellow-heads like me.” Everyone laughed, conscious that this explanation covered much deeper feeling on Rosalin’s part.  
“Perhaps I might make a suggestion?” said Geoffrey, the Earl. “Aunt Effie told the story in a way that is a little different to the tradition of the other jewelled necklets, which you call ‘collars’, Rosalin. The necklets that Rosamund and Patricia wear, the pearls that Rosamund had for her wedding, and the emeralds you see tonight, are gifts that Kentisbury brides receive, then pass on to other brides in the family. Rhoda has worn her mother’s rubies. Neither Aunt Rosabel, who held the emeralds, or Aunt Effie, who had the garnets, was ever a bride, so neither wore them.”  
“You are a Kentisbury bride, Rosalin, and it is quite proper that you should wear one of the Kentisbury jewelled necklets. Perhaps one day there will be a young woman to whom you may wish to present it,” Geoffrey smiled, as Rosalin blushed in confusion.  
“But there is another necklet, held here in the Castle. It was the original set of jewels presented to a girl of the family by Henry VIII, made of diamonds. As the newest Kentisbury bride, Rosalin, I believe you should wear it for a time.”  
“The Kentisbury diamonds,” breathed Rosalin. “Oh, Uncle Geoffrey, we used to talk about them with Geoff and Rosalie when we were children. They were like a legend to us all. I would happily pass on the garnets to Janice or Littlejan without any such gift, but I would consider it such a privilege to wear the Kentisbury diamonds, even just once. Thank you for thinking of me and it makes me proud to think you would let me wear them.”  
“Prettily said, my dear. I know young Geoff would have wanted to give them to his wife, had he lived. You, his friend and cousin, and our youngest Kentisbury bride, are the rightful person to wear them. And you may be happy to pass the garnets to Littlejan, knowing that one day another Kentisbury bride will wear them, perhaps little Cecily Rose, or our Rosalin? Just as one day, Rosabel may wear Rosamund’s pearls, while young Rosella may wear Patricia’s emeralds. Janice, my dear, that rather leaves you out, but perhaps Littlejan would lend you the garnets sometimes?”  
“Were I to have diamonds, emeralds, pearls, rubies, or garnets, I should have already passed them on to Littlejan,” said Janice. “Thank you, Cousin Geoffrey,” she said, smiling as she used this name for the first time. “And Rosalin, your garnets link us forever to you and the family. Thank you.”


End file.
